Lennep, van, family

Van Lennep, a very old family, was mentioned already about 1000 and at that time living at the country seat of Linepe (Lennepe) near Düsseldorf, Germany. In the Middle Ages a branch of this family produced a number of magistrates at Emmerich, Germany. From this branch proceeded the Dutch Mennonite van Lennep family, whose ancestor was Warner van Lennep, a merchant, born in 1597 or 1598 at Emmerich and died in 1644 at Amsterdam. He moved from Emmerich to Amsterdam, where he married Sara van Haimael. His son Jacob van Lennep (1631-1704) and his grandson Aernout van Lennep (1658-1728), a son of Jacob, were both deacons of the Amsterdam Mennonite Lamen-Toren congregation. Both were silk merchants and were appointed by the burgomasters of Amsterdam as directors of the silk market at Amsterdam. The van Lennep family, by their excellent commercial ability —they mostly traded with the Levant, especially Smyrna—by their wealth and their reliability, were highly respected and were among the influential citizens of Amsterdam. By marriage they became related to a number of other well-known Amsterdam Mennonite families, such as van Haimael, van der Meersch, Block, Leeuw, Rutgers, de Veer, Looten, de Neufville, Roeters, de Wolff, and Bierens.

The aforementioned Jacob van Lennep, a silk merchant and manufacturer of a famous gold and silver cloth and of linen damask, had built a splendid house on the Herengracht, where the mercantile aristocracy of Amsterdam at that time lived; he moreover owned the country home "Roosenberg" in Watergraafsmeer. His son and successor Aernout van Lennep in 1699 bought the country home "Het Paradijs" at Heemstede near Haarlem.

In the 18th century some members of this family went over to the Reformed Church, probably because they wished to hold high state offices, from which the Dutch Mennonites were excluded until 1795, or to enter the army. The first of this family to leave the Mennonite Church was David van Lennep (1721-1771), who joined the Reformed Church in 1745. Other branches of the family remained Mennonite and served the Amsterdam congregation as deacons until recent times, among whom was Jacob Abraham van Lennep, who in 1775 took the initiative in building a pipe organ in the Amsterdam Singel church. There is only one Mennonite minister from the family, viz., Egbert David van Lennep, born 2 January 1787 at Almelo, died 1 June 1851 at Doetichem, a son of Jacob Roeters van Lennep and Catharina Coster, who, after studying at the Amsterdam Seminary, served the congregations of Zutphen 1810-11 and Almelo 1811-38. To this family also belonged H. S. van Lennep.